Henri Le Foll <li...@lefoll.eu> writes: > http://wiki.debian.org/Packaging/Minimal (for empty packages) > http://wiki.debian.org/Packaging/Trivial (for a pdf file) > > http://wiki.debian.org/Packaging > > I am interested to have feed back on it
I maintain my view that to learn packaging, the best way to do that is to start from scratch - there are no unknown black boxes there one does not understand (and while dh-make is a great tool in the right hands, the default templates it works from are a tad confusing to someone who has no idea how packaging works). I also disagree with using equivs for this: while it works, and gets the job done quickly, it does not encourage learning to package. I believe that the extra effort in learning the basics is well worth the trouble. It's so much easier to just quickly throw something together and install it properly than putting it into /usr/local on any number of computers one wishes to install a piece of software or documentation or whatever on. Therefore, while the current article is a good start, I think it could be improved a lot by switching from the "simple from an experienced point of view" to "simple for someone who hasn't done any packaging yet, at all" mindset. The "Introduction to Debian Packaging"[0] article linked from one of the pages above is a very solid start (even though it uses dh short form - explaining all the steps it does for even the simplest packages would make a novice's head hurt), and one of the best introductions I've seen so far. If I'd attempt to write a packaging guide, for non-compiled software, I'd start from there: "Read THAT until it gets to debian/rules, and instead of doing what it says, do THIS-AND-THAT, because...". Simply listing steps to do isn't all that useful in my opinion: one will not know WHY that step is done, or what it does (or $deity forbid, how actually do that step [see: "5 - modify the files in the debian directory"]). It's great to have a summary, as a kind of Table of Contents, but without explanation, it's a bit... too little. So, once there's more content on these WiKi pages, they can be very useful, they do have the potential, but they're not quite there yet. [0]: http://wiki.debian.org/IntroDebianPackaging -- |8] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/87zkiphbcy....@balabit.hu
